A new NERD order

	A new NER*D order

	June 7, 2002 BY JIM DeROGATIS POP MUSIC CRITIC As half of the duo known as the Neptunes, Pharrell Williams is one of the most in-demand producers in pop music today, with credits including Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. In fact, our interview is scheduled and postponed three times to accommodate his work on the new solo album by Justin Timberlake. The music of the 'N Sync crooner couldn't be more different than that of NERD, Williams' own project with his Neptunes partner, Chad Hugo. An acronym for "No One Ever Really Dies," NERD makes some of the weirdest, most inventive, most psychedelic hip-hop since De La Soul. 'N Sync makes ... well, 'N Sync music. But Williams claims that juxtapositions like that aren't nearly as schizophrenic for him as they are for some listeners. [an error occurred while processing this directive] "That sort of makes it sound like we're special or different, and we're really not, because the truth of the matter is that most people don't just listen to one sound of music," he says during a break from the Timberlake sessions. "They listen to many different kinds of music, and so we just make many different kinds of music. You know what I mean? I can't speak for most musicians, because they do what they do and they have reasons for what they do. But me personally, I just like music, period." Williams doesn't shy away from that adjective "psychedelic," but like many musicians today, he considers it to be more of an open-minded, genre-blind approach to songwriting and recording, rather than anything to do with drug use or the '60s. "When I was growing up, pop music was great music," he says. "In the '70s and even toward the middle of the '80s, pop music was hot as a mother. ... That's how it is over in Europe. A hot song is a hot song, whether it's rock or pop or whatever. They only have one chart, and good music is good music. Pop over there means it's popular because it's a good song. That's what it used to mean here, but here it's become like the means of corporations making big bucks. We have to change that a little bit." How, then, does this super-producer define a good song? "By the reaction," he says. "The reaction in someone's face, the body language, that just lets you know that you've done something right. Also, if I respond to it, than I know that other people will like it." In addition to a fair amount of goofy between-tracks joking and a varied musical palette ranging from funky analog synths to soulful horns to the sensuous crooning of rising NeoSoul star Kelis, the recently released NERD album, "In Search Of ... " boasts a poignant lyrical message about asserting one's individuality. "A life soundtrack" is how the label bio describes the debut. "Put in even simpler terms, it's just good high-school [stuff] and college [stuff]," Williams says. "It's the [stuff] you go through while you're in high school or college. And it's not black or white, it's everything--it's all those memories, all those times, all those people, the different situations that we all went through." As such, it's infinitely more ambitious than most of the albums that have made the Neptunes famous as producers. How does Williams view the difference between the role of artist and producer? "When you make records for a lot of people, you have to make records you like to hear them on and they would like to hear themselves on, but then push them to a limit," he writes on the NERD Web site. "But when you're making records for yourself, you already know who you are; you can go as far deep into music as you can go without running into time. You can hold your breath for as long as you can and then come up for air and then go dive into another part of the pool, another part of life." As for where the Neptunes are headed next, Williams says he'd love to produce more country artists. "Faith Hill--and I really, really, really wanna work with Bonnie Raitt," he says. Plus, he wouldn't mind working with Courtney Love. "I'd be interested in hearing what it is that she wants to do, but me personally, I would love to take her back to [singing], 'When they get what they want they never want it again/Go on take everything take everything I want you to ... ' Tell her to call me, man!" BACK